300
Like I mentioned, I got to go see the blockbuster hit *300* last weekend. Man, what a movie. The battle at Thermopylae has always fascinated me, and I've done some reading on it as well as watched more than 1 documentary on the battle itself.
This movie went beyond just the battle and gave us a little history on where King Leonidas came from, how he and other Spartan warriors were raised and what made them the Delta Force warriors of the Greeks.
I also got to watch a History channel documentary called *Inside the 300*, which covered many of the same topics as the movie. I was amazed at actually how accurate the movie was to the truth.
Just for your info a few things that were left out/changed in the movie:
1. The Spartan warrior doesn't go kill a wolf, they had to kill a slave without being caught. I can understand why they changed that.
2. They changed what the Oracle said. What she really said was that Greek would perish unless a king sacrificed his life. (basically) Why they changed this, I don't know. I think this part was a mistake. I guess they wanted a better reason for the Spartan Council to bicker about not sending the whole army. That did happen in reality, I don't think they needed to change this.
3. They left out completely the greek navy battle that kept the Persians from landing troops behind Leonidas. The Greeks here were outnumbered 6-1 or more, and held out longer than the Spartans did. After the Spartans fell, the Greek navy fled.
4. Scholars cannot be sure how big the Persian army really was, but most feel it was probably only 300,000 though some feel it could have been over 1 million. The movie was pretty vague on that part.
5. When the Persians marched their 10,000 troops up the goat trail, the 1000 Philisions (sp?) who were guarding it, thought the Persians were heading for their city and abondoned the trail to protect their city. This opened up the trail for them to come behind the Spartans.
6. When the Greeks fled, it was not an all out flee. They left in small numbers to keep the Persians from knowing they left.
7. They left out that 1000 Greeks actually stayed and died in the final stand with the Spartans.
8. They left out that the Persians got to Greece by building a huge bridge out of pantoon boats and walked across the Agian sea.
9. It left out that 2 months after Leonidas died, the Persians marched on Athens and burned it to the ground. It was after that, that the Greeks and Spartans banded together and eventually pushed the Persians off of Greece, burned their bridge and this led to Phillip uniting Greece and then Alexander destroying most of Persia.
10. They had the wrong reason Xerxes and the Persians invaded in the first place. It really was, the Greeks supported an uprising in a Persian city 50 years earlier, when Xerxes father or grandfather was king. The rebels burned the city to the ground. This led the then Persian king to promise to burn Athens to the ground. Then 10 years before Thermopylae, a Persian army of 50,000 or so landed near the city of Marathon and were defeated by 10,000 Greek Troops. (These numbers are highly debated and vary depending on the sources and scholars)
Xerxes then had a slave every day whisper in his ear during supper, "Remember the Greeks." So this is why he eventually forced his way into Greece to burn Athens.
Now barring the small number of *changes* they put into the movie, this was an epic movie that will be well remembered for some time. It won't win any oscars, but wow, just wow.
One thing that did bother me a bit was the number of small children in the theatre with me. What the hell are those parents thinking?? 7 to 10 year old boys and girls have no business being in that theatre. That was rediculous.
Anyway, what did you guys think of the movie?
Until next time...
posted by Ben at 8:59 AM
4 Comments:
Loved the movie. The attitude was perfect. All the Spartans were just beyond cool, and the Persian army was just shown as awesomely mystic and eastern, showed the difference in cultures very well.
I actually had a conversation with another history buff after the movie about how different the world would be if the Persians had sacked all the greek cities, would Rome have become a world spanning empire? and all that.
I felt bad that my year and half old had to come with me to the theatre due to my wife wanting to see the movie. He slept thru everything until the spear throw at the end. I worry about what dreams my son will someday have.
Yea, the spear throw I'm sure never really happened. Actually history says Leonaidas was mortally injured early on in the final battle. And the Persians tried 3 times to capture the body, but the Spartans kept beating them back until they were finally all killed.
Hope your son doesn't have too many bad dreams. I'd be more worried about the sex scene, and all the decapitation shots.
So far he's been alright, I'm more thinking later down the road. We used to watch just about anythign with him in the room and not worry about it, but recently he's been a little more upset when things are bad, like the beginning of Finding Nemo..so we're lessening the TV, which is usually just background noise, and listening to more music
One thing to consider guys is this is a essentially frame for frame conversion from the comic. Just like Sin City. Frank Miller took the overall story and thing focussed on things that fit with the story that *he* wanted to tell. History lesson? Not so much. Still awesome though.
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